helen boyd's journal of gender & trans issues

I received a missive from Fair Wisconsin Thursday morning about the lawsuit three board members of Wisconsin Family Action filed to challenge the constitutionality of the recently enacted domestic partnership protections.

Here’s the wording that blew my mind:

Fair Wisconsin is currently reviewing this lawsuit with our legal counsel, and we are prepared to defend domestic partnerships. We are hopeful that the State Supreme Court will recognize that domestic partnerships are not substantially similar to marriage, and will arrive at a fair and just decision that upholds these crucial protections for caring, committed couples.

Please read the boldfaced bit over. Basically, you want marriage protections for same-sex couples, but the bigots in your state are against that & have put an amendment into your state constitution saying that not only can same-sex marriage never be legal, but that no other law in the state can give those same people any benefits/legal standing that *looks anything like* marriage. As a result, same-sex people are hoping the State Supreme Court doesn’t view the partner benefits as anything like marriage — which, ironically for all the same sex couples – they are not. Not even close, actually, but it’s still like something out of Kafka.

Suddenly I don’t feel so welcome in Wisconsin, and while I know, in my heart, that it was ignorance and a lot of legwork by bigots that lead to these state constitutions, it shames me as an American that more people have not stood up & said ENOUGH. (I really do believe that most people want me & Rachel to be able to share each other’s health insurance, and mostly I do. )

The state of Washington legislature voted earlier this year to extend all the rights, benefits, and responsibilities of marriage to people in registered domestic partnerships. Immediately, the “Christians” who say they’re aren’t opposed to equal rights (they’re just trying to “preserve the sanctity of traditional marriage”) initiated a referendum to repeal the law that granted equal rights.

Oh, the irony – one of the leaders of the repeal effort has been divorced twice, married three times, and had a protection order against him by a previous wife, for domestic violence. But he believes in redemption.

They submitted their petitions a few days ago. It’s pretty close, so it’ll probably be weeks, if not months, before we know if they got enough signatures to put the referendum on the ballot. I find it astonishing that thousands of people are willing to stand – publicly – behind the principle that discrimination should remain legal.

On the bright side, a couple of years ago when the state added sexual orientation, including gender identity and expression, to the non-discrimination laws, the usual suspects failed to collect enough signatures to put a repeal referendum on the ballot. At this point we can only hope.

Let me clarify that I’m not categorically anti-Christian. I know some for whom their religion is about fairness, social justice, and treating others as they would like to be treated. Then there’s other Christians for whom it’s all about rules and punishment, and their imagined responsibility to be God’s enforcers here on Earth.